One family’s story of tragedy, skin donation and 26 years of borrowed time
Roy Schramm shouldn’t have survived.
With burns over 60% of his body, doctors had told his wife, Jeanette, to gather his family — now. She plunked coins into a hospital pay phone to bring everyone together.
Hours earlier, Roy was finishing his midnight shift in the Hot Strip Mill at Ford Motor Co.’s Rouge steel factory in Dearborn. That’s where steel slabs were heated, cut, rolled and cooled before they were crafted to make frames for Mustangs, Thunderbirds and other Ford models.
It was the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving in 1978.
“Mom and I — I was 13 — were getting ready for our 8 a.m. church service when the phone rang,” said Tim Schramm, the youngest of four. “Mom answered, her jaw dropped, and she said, ‘C’mon, we need to get downtown. Dad’s been hurt.’”
A horrible accident
Minutes earlier, Roy had tried to save a large, expensive magnet from sinking into a pit of water
used to cool the sub-molten steel. The heat melted the bottom of his work boots.
As the 51-year-old stepped onto a platform, Roy slipped into the pit of near-boiling water. He was immersed except for his right arm and everything above his shoulders.
“Dad pulled himself out using just one arm and stripped his boots and pants down to his boxers,” Tim said. “But the zipper of his jacket had melted, and he couldn’t get it off.”
Roy somehow drove himself nine miles to Henry Ford Hospital. “He walked into the ER, told them he needed help and passed out,” Tim said. “Our lives changed forever.”
Roy suffered burns over 60% of his body and, in places, was burned to the bone. He was transferred to the Burn Center at St. Joseph Hospital in Ann Arbor where Tim, his mother and three siblings were told he probably would not survive.
“Dad’s heart stopped beating more than once, but he found a way to live,” Tim said.
Healing with help
His next battle was just beginning.
Only skin grafts — lots of them over months — would save Roy’s life, and there wasn’t enough supply.
“Skin donation wasn’t done much back then, so doctors proposed a new grafting technique,” Tim said. “In the lab, they punched diamond-shaped holes in donor skin to allow for greater elasticity and coverage.
“Donors helped my dad one skin graft at a time,” Tim said. “We were on edge wondering, ‘Did it take? Is it healing?’ They did that over and over again, and my dad looked like he had the 10 of diamonds all over his arms and legs.”
Six months later, Roy walked out of the burn center with his family by his side. He eventually returned to work until he retired in 1985. He and Tim’s mom enjoyed life — including winter travel to warm destinations — before he died in 2005.
He lived with gratitude for 26 years after his accident.
“Because of that precious gift of skin, Dad was here to see my two brothers, my sister and I graduate from college, marry, and welcome eight grandchildren,” Tim said, his eyes welling. “I am so thankful my dad was able to watch me play college football, hold my sons, and see them grow into fine young men.
“We wouldn’t have had all those moments with him without those precious gifts of skin. I am so thankful for those people — and those families,” Tim said.
“It was truly the gift of life for my dad and my family.”
Roy Schramm lived to see his son, Tim, graduate from high school, play college football and celebrate the births of Tim’s children. Tim and his three siblings are grateful for their father’s “precious gifts of skin.”
